Improve hospital, don’t give it away

Louis G. Dominguez
Published: May 15, 2008

Recently, editions of the Manassas Journal Messenger and the Washington Post carried a one page ad paid for by the
Prince William Hospital and Inova, again promoting the merger of the two institutions.

The ad included a few local business names, mostly small businesses that do not represent the citizens of the area. The businesses included on the list are but a small number of those doing business in Manassas and Prince William County.

There were no physicians, nurses or other health care professionals endorsing such a merger and the support of the medical staff is essential for any successful health care delivery scheme. In addition, there were no health insurance companies endorsing the merger either.

Also left out were the members of the Prince William Hospital Auxiliary. These volunteers have been working day and night and earning millions of dollars for the hospital and they have also contributed more than a million hours of volunteer work during the past 40 years.

The proposed merger is a slap in the face to the thousands of local citizens, including school age children who contributed to the building of the community hospital and whose contributions have helped to keep the hospital alive and competitive.

Eight years ago, the present operators of the hospital were trying to give away the facility to an out-of-state, for-profit hospital chain, but local citizens banded together and put a stop to it. No one knows what the real motivation is, but this hospital is the envy of other like institutions in Virginia: rich in infrastructure and drowning in cash reserves.

With the head man making more than $400,000 per year and many of his associates more than $100,000 plus lots of perks, they should be working day and night to improve the hospital, not give it away.

The promotional campaign and all of the allied costs involved in the ill-conceived plan to give the hospital away is eating away millions of dollars that would be better spent in improving the quality of care and reducing the cost of operations.

LOUIS G. DOMINGUEZ

Founder, Save Our Hospital Coalition